ANTARCTICA

PROTECTING PENGUINS FROM GLOBAL WARMING

The Center is working to protect the world’s penguin species from extinction due to global warming. More than half of the world’s 19 penguin species are in danger of extinction, including the ice-dependent emperor penguin in Antarctica. In 2006 the Center petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list 12 of the world’s penguin species under the Endangered Species Act, including the emperor penguin.

PROTECTING ANTARCTIC WILDLIFE FROM FISHERIES

Wildlife in the Antarctic, ranging from penguins and albatross to large whales, face the dual threat of global warming combined with industrial fisheries, which either deplete their prey, causing them to starve, or hook and drown them directly. In 2003, advocacy by the Center led to the closure of the U.S. longline fishery for Patagonia toothfish (sold in the United States as Chilean seabass). Most of the world’s albatross species are threatened by longline fisheries, which drown more than 300,000 of these magnificent birds annually. The Center is working to secure Endangered Species Act protections for 15 albatross species and to limit imports of toothfish into the United States.